Role of Human Resource Planning - Essay Example

Resourcing RESOURCING Under the power that drives globalization and modern business competition, the roles of human resource planning (HRP), has become more apparent and significant. This is through the many organizations that develop today. Human resource planning is closely and directly associated with the success and development of any organization. When an organization strives to become dominant in a defined industry, it pays more attention to the functioning of the HRP and applies it systematically and scientifically. This paper discusses the role of human resource planning (HRP) in resourcing the business and legal framework in the recruitment and selection processes. Role of the HRP in business resourcing The first and key principle of human resource planning is to look for the right individuals with the necessary skills, competence and experience to fill the right positions and at a cost that the organization can afford. Human resource planning, in organizations, aids in acquiring the right personnel to perform duties in the organization matched to the organizational; needs, this is an extremely vital division of Human resource management. It is the role of human resource planning to forecast future labor demands and schedule activities for the acquiring, training and deployment or discarding labor in the organization (Chris, 2009 p56). Human resource means there is a part of the organization whose only concern is about all activities related to the employees of the organization. The related activities incorporate the taking on, hiring of new employees, the orientation and education of the present employees, retaining and employee welfare. Human resource planning s more than human resourcing, the people employed into the organization are from different backgrounds and will work for different departments in the organization. Feelings, thoughts and needs, are the basic requirements of any person; this is such that the term human resource planning refers to an approach where all the needs of both employees and organization are taken into account. Different individuals have different needs and aspirations human resource planning aims at realizing the needs and aspirations of all employees in the organization. This is done in order to retain and attract many more employees that are valuable (Chris, 2009 p68). Matching resources to the needs of the business The business world is constantly changing as evident over the last several decades, the world that was known twenty years ago is gone. Technological changes experienced every day can cause the disappearance of established products. The life cycle of some products calculated in months rather than years people is now more concerned with job security, employability or transferable skills. Customers are now more litigious and aggressive. Competition today is regularly confronted by monopolies, globalization means that customers in the UK will enjoy 24hrs access to products and services originating from other countries, were the cost of labor and manufacturing are low. Because of this, organizations have to change their functioning to accommodate the changes that are being experienced (Aswathappa & Dash, 2008 p56). The various agents that highly cause change in the business environment include globalization, market forces, mergers and acquisitions. Change can be brought about by political, economical, social, technological, legal and environmental factors. Legislation, social policies, international law and government orthodoxy are some of the political factors that cause change in the business environment and needs and hence trigger the human resource planning to act. Earnings, exchange and inflation rates and levels of employment fall under the economic change factors that can affect the business environment causing change. Demographic trends, customer patterns, work attitude and mobility fall under the social change factors. Technological changes are brought about by change in the technology used in manufacturing processes, communication and the internet, such technological changes are highly crucial, and an organization has to institute changes that will keep it up to date with the latest technology. Under the legal change factors, there is corporate law, European law and employment law in which when changes occur the human resource planning has to accommodate this changes into the business practices. The environmental protection laws, waste and recycling and the natural resources are some of the environmental factors that cause change in an organization, human resource planning has to adjust the needs of the organization is such a way the changes experienced in this fields are incorporated in to the business (Price, 2004 p43). The human resource planning has to respond to changes in the above field by either performing one or a combination of the following: 1. Downsizing the number of employees in the organization to meet the needs of the organization while accommodating the changes experienced, 2. De-layering- this is the removal of the unnecessary departments in the organization. The departments in discussion are those that have been rendered useless to the organization by changes in the business environment. Role of HR in planning for the demand and the supply of labor: The global labor market The global labor market is constantly changing, the key features that have experience a lot of change include the economy, from a static economy to a fast changing economy. The old world had business strategies that were relatively static while the world today has continuously evolving business strategies. In the old world organization concentrated on the making of durable products, today organizations focus on the production of short product life cycles. The old business world was characterized by stable customer needs; the business world today is characterized by regularly changing customer needs. From well defined markets and clearly identified competitors to a global market place with thousands of potential customers (Wilton, 2011 p79). Challenges and implications Human resource planning is highly beneficial to an organization, the employees and trade unions. Some problems crop up as the HRP is performing its roles in the organization such challenges and implications include: (i) Employer and employee resistance Many employers do not cooperate with the HRP sine they think that it causes an increase in the cost of labor, as the trade unions will demand employee-based plans, benefits including training and development and an increase in the facilities available to employees. Employers feel that the HRP is not crucial to the organization they view it in the sense that candidates are available throughout the year because of the unemployment cases in the third world countries. Employees and trade unions resist the HRP since they believe that it increase their workload and prepares programs for the securing of human resources from outside the organization. They also resist the HRP since it aims at controlling them for productivity maximization (Snell & Bohlander, 2012 p123). (ii) Uncertainties They are quite prominent in human resource practices this is because of seasonal employment, absenteeism, labor turnover, market conditions and changing technologies making the HRP unreliable. (iii) Inadequacies of Information System Information systems that regard human resources have not been fully developed this is because industries give low status to the personnel department, consequently, human resource planning is usually disdained. Reliable data and information n the economy, competitors, the labor market and trends in the human resources are not available (Wilton, 2011 p79). HRP and flexibility Today flexibility is a central theme for organizations. This is in respect to resourcing the business in order to remain competitive and have a competitive advantage. The reasons for organizational HRP flexibility are for the deployment of labor effectively and efficiently a flexible organization enjoys the benefit of responding and embracing change. Employees value flexibility and this it facilitates the retention and recruitment of strong performers (Wilton, 2011 p79). Organizational restructuring Organizations are in a constant state of change, organization that lose focus on their business goals and objectives will cease operating because the market will be taken from them by their competitors. The HRP sometimes has to restructure the whole organization, make sure there is equal distribution of talent and skills where required for effective performance of the organization and employees and as a whole (Taylor, 2005 p45). Resourcing and HRP Processes for employer resourcing provide an indispensable lever for the support of strategic and cultural change in an organization. Employer resourcing further helps in the delivery of behaviors that are necessary for the support of organizational strategies. Human resource planning ensures that employees with the required skills and qualities are accessed successively. Given the appropriate tasks and roles, are well appraised, developed and rewarded against all the appropriate competency criteria (Snell & Bohlander, 2012 p129). Human resource planning issues Many organizations have reported low numbers of vacancies available to them and that this is likely to be worsened by the abolition of the set default retirement age. Despite the high unemployment rates, many organizations have reported difficulties in filling the available vacancies due to shortage of skills. Today, the proportions of organizations that have reported that talent competition is great have been on the increase, as the available talent for hire has reduced sharply. Many organizations have discovered there is a clear mismatch between the skills that are available in the market and skills that are required in the organization. This has made experts concerned that this will e exaggerated by the increased university tuition fees. Organizations are responding by increasing apprentice schemes, sponsoring students and offering them internships (Kolehmainen et al, 2009 p2). Recruitment and selection (R & S) The first stage of the recruitment and selection process involves job analysis and job description. Job analysis involves the processes of collecting analyzing and setting out information about the details of the job vacancy. This is done to provide a basis for job description and the date of recruitment, training, performance management and job evaluation. Job analysis is prominent in the range of all Human resource planning activities. These are the recruitment and selection, identification of training needs, determination of pay differentials, performance targets setting and the drawing of new organizational structures. In the recruitment and selection processes, this activity provides all information on which two documents are based on, this are the job description and person specification. A job description is a document outlining the purposes of the job. The reporting relationships and the tasks, duties and responsibilities, entailed to the job position (Price, 2004 p57). The second stage in the recruitment and selection procedure involves assessing the type of applicants required by the organization. This stage is further subdivided into person specification and key results areas. Person specification frameworks involve selection of traits that the organization looks for in it employees these includes the physical make-up, impact others, qualification and acquired knowledge, interests, adjustment ability and emotional balance (Price, 2004 p57). Competency frameworks may be used to determine if the applicants have any unique characteristics that result in superior performance, in a job. The competence framework starts by the analysis of people and attributes that account for their superior and effective performance. Most of the commonly sought competencies in UK are communication, customer focus, leadership, flexibility, analytical thinking, problem solving, planning and organizing among others (Cole, 2004 p46). The third stage in the recruitment and selection process is advertising. Organizations have to attract the interest of applicants; this is done through advertising on the various available media. The media ranges from the organization’s corporate website and recruitment agencies (Aswathappa & Dash, 2008 p89). The final stage is the selection of the recruits. This is a two way process it provides information for the decisions to be made by the employee and the employer. The selection process is concerned with predicting candidates who will make significant contributions to the organization at the present and in the future. Good selection and recruitment processes are at most times costly; they, however, minimize the risk of failing to achieve the business strategy of the organization. The importance of selection has improved because of a less homogeneous workforce that has increased the need for fairness in the process. Today, selection is more concerned with attitudes and behaviors rather than matching of individuals to specific job requirements. People are now crucial in order for an organization to achieve corporate strategy. There is the classic trio which is a term used to refer to a traditional set of activities that are used by organizations for the selection of new recruits. These are application, interview and reference checking. Though these are techniques common in practice, occupational psychologists on their validity have heavily criticized them; this is how accurately they can predict job performance (Aswathappa & Dash, 2008 p90). Impacts of the Equity Act (2010) on the R & S The act requires that organization protect the job applicants against any direct and indirect discrimination, victimization and harassment (in internal job applications and promotional opportunities). That the applicants are not discriminated based on their disability. The act protects the applicants from the use of pre-employment health questionnaires, widens the tribunal powers, and makes pay secrecy clauses unenforceable. The act protects individual applicants from discrimination on age, gender reassignment, disability, race, belief and religion among others. Human resource planning is very vital for the success of an organization. It ensures that the organization has the required skills when the need arises. Human resource planning is able to predict and conceptualize the organizations future needs and make plans for tier fulfillment. This paper has discussed the role of human resource planning in resourcing the business and the role of R & S and the legal framework. References Aswathappa K, & Dash S. (2008). International human resource management : text and cases. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Pub. Chris J. (2009). Human Resource Management: The Key Concepts. New York: Taylor & Francis. Cole A. (2004). Management theory and practice. London: Thomson Learning. Kolehmainen-Aitken R, & Project., D. f. (2009). Human resources planning : issues and methods. Boston: Harvard School of Public Health. Price A. (2011). Human resource management. Andover: South-Western. Snell S, & Bohlander, G. W. (2012). Managing human resources. Mason, Ohio :: South- Western. Taylor, S. (2005). People resourcing. London : Chartered Inst. of Personnel and Development. Wilton, N. (2011). An introduction to human resource management. London: SAGE. Read More